For scientific papers on AGW, record happenings in the Arctic and the Greenland, Himalayan and Antarctic icesheets. Also weatherstorms and higher than average rainfalls and other extreme weather events.

With a decision that could have far-reaching implications, a federal judge in California has ordered the first ever U.S. court hearing on climate science for a "public nuisance" lawsuit, meaning that major oil and gas companies for the first time may have to go on the record regarding what they knew about the planetary impacts of their products—and when.

"At the core of the plaintiff's lawsuit is the idea that these companies have long known about risks of their products...yet they took a course of action that resisted regulation and sought to keep them on the market as long as possible."—Michael Burger,Columbia University

"This will be the closest that we have seen to a trial on climate science in the United States, to date," Michael Burger, a lawyer who heads the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, told McClatchy's D.C. Bureau.

Last year, the cities of San Francisco and Oakland filed the lawsuit against five major oil and gas companies—BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell—in hopes of holding them to account for fossil fuel production's massive contributions to global warming and the impact the climate crisis is having on coastal communities.

On March 21, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup will allow the cities as well as the fossil fuel companies named in the complaint (pdf) "to conduct a two-part tutorial on the subject of global warming and climate change," according to a notice (pdf) filed by the judge.